A Pointless History of the World

BBC's Pointless #5

by Richard Osman

A Pointless History of the World is a complete[1] and meticulously researched[2] series of essays on our rich and glorious past. Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman, two of the world's foremost experts on Things Before Their Time[3] take you on a step-by-step journey through history.

From the Big Bang to the Fall of the Roman Empire, from the Ice Age to the Evolution of Language, from Henry VIII to Last of the Summer Wine: all of civilisation is here. A publishing first, this thoroughly comprehensive and highly ambitious quest through Time and Space is interspersed with questions for all the family from TV's most popular tea-time quiz show, Pointless. This is Alexander and Richard's biggest book yet.

The book no historian can afford to be without[4], it comes complete with introduction and footnotes[5].

[1] Highly selective

[2] Largely cobbled together from what we can remember from school

[3] That's not even a thing

[4] Under no circumstances to be used for reference

[5] Um...

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, History

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 6, 2016

About the author

Richard Osman is an author and television presenter. His novels, The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice, The Bullet That Missed, and The Last Devil to Die, were number one, million-copy international bestsellers as well as New York Times bestsellers. He lives in London with his wife, Ingrid, and Liesl the cat. We Solve Murders is his fifth novel.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Pointless on the TV and already have two books so I was very pleased to get this. The book is excellent and funny and appeals to everyone.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great trivia book with satirical interludes from the writers helping to entertain and elevate this above most other quiz books.

[Euan Connelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. If you enjoy Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong's craic, you'll love this too. It has a great final paragraph too.

[Nigel McFarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing and lightweight review of history, interleaved with Pointless quizzes. The real gem, however, is in the final two or three pages: Richard Osman's thoughts on the future and the meaning of it all were so beautifully put that it almost moved me to tears.

[Ffion Condon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book, there weren't many parts that I felt like I just wanted to skip past because the were a bit boring. Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of History, but this book made it really fun and engaging. It was nice to be able to look forward to reading this book, and never before had I been excited about History. It was also nice to look forward to the chapters which were more relevant to me such as Wales and Electricity. I also liked the quiz questions at the end of the short chapters. This broke the book up a bit (in a good way) and I enjoyed testing my friends and family with the questions. This book absolutely made me laugh so loud and it made me even more interested, therefore in what I was learning about.

I thought that the parts by Richard Osman, though, were a lot easier to read and take in compared to the ones that Alexander Armstrong wrote (Nothing against them).

I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone who wants a bit of laughter, and happiness every now and again.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is a pointless history of the world! If you want to learn about history then I could recommend other books but if you want a good laugh and enjoy 'Pointless'-style questions then this is a great read!

I didn't think I would but I genuinely laughed out loud several times throughout reading. Each chapter is fairly short and written by either Alexander Armstrong or Richard Osman, who are both equally hilarious and entertaining. The quizzes are very fun to do as well (I might be biased because the last quiz was on literature and I did rather well so ended the book on a high!).

Pointless fans, this book has been well-adapted from the show, you will enjoy it immensely. Others who aren't familiar with the programme will probably enjoy it too.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much in the way of research, depth, or breadth, but this is forgivable seeing as expectations were clearly set. The blurb accurately describes this book as ‘highly selective’ and ‘largely cobbled together together from what we can remember from school’, and I appreciate that it’s not pretending to be something that it isn’t. A light, easy to read book. I wouldn’t recommend it to the general reader, but if you’re a fan of Pointless, you’ll probably enjoy it.

[Rosalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
I was better prepared for this having tried to read their earlier book of trivia. Again, I thought that this would be a look at the history of the world, through trivia, and I guess it was in away. However, like the previous book, it is very much linked to their BBC TV show, and as I have never watched that it all felt a bit flat.
I’m glad that I didn’t buy either of the books, just borrowed them from my local library.

[Shiraz Esat · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF
The attempts at humour actually spoilt this book - either the attempts to get a laugh were so ridiculous or because it was hard to separate fact from fiction.
This was nothing like the excellent Horrible Histories series, where jokes abound but without watering the truth and, in fact, complemented events to reinforce knowledge.
The pointless quizzes were useful, and maybe that's where this should have been taken: have a quiz, delve into the answers, and add a few jokes.

[Anna Langley · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like Richard Osman’s sense of humour (I do) you will enjoy this, if you don’t find him funny I expect you will hate this book. It is a lighthearted review of history not a heavily referenced and in depth history book. The pointless quizzes at the end of each chapter were great, everyone loves a quiz surely!

[growing_faith.reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the TV show, but still enjoyable as a one-time read. Fun to do the quizzes with another person. Chapters alternate between Xander and Richard and we found Richard’s funnier (and cleaner).

[Anna Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a good chuckle, history explained somewhat and some general knowledge questions thrown in too which got my brain thinking for a change.

[lynne davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny tongue in cheek book of facts

[Richard Luck · Rating 3 out of 5]

As light, fun and informative as the show itself.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little book that highlights common history topics such as Churchill with humour and fun that is evidenced on the tv programme.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty. Light reading. Full of facts and useless trivia that makes it interesting enough.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy drop in and out Pointless book

[Rachelmaloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and witty, this is a whistlestop tour through history. The earlier chapters are much more detailed than the latter and some of the jokes peppered throughout seem a bit pointless (!). Every chapter finishes with a pointless round which is a fun little exercise.

[James Traxler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat interesting, mildly amusing.
I might venture into watching an episode of the TV programme now.
I found that the most curious thing about this book was that there were NO PAGE NUMBERS. Heresy.

[Trillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read to dip in and out of. More random humour than actual trivia. I particularly liked the sections on 19th Century Literature and the year 1970.

[Clive Bevitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly amusing but not very informative.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alexander is a bit boring in this one :'(

[Piers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as informative, funny or clever as the authors want you to believe. The title is about as descriptive as you'll get.

[Zehra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, inaccurate, peppered with the quiz. Love Xander and Richard's voices coming through.